Mediator’s future hinges on vote of vestry

Lay leaders of the Church of the Mediator will vote this week on a 24-month timeline to strike a deal with a developer and begin repaying $661,501 in arrears the parish owes to the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

It is a step the diocesan trustees, who manage church property and endowment funds, are requiring parishioners to take by Oct. 19, diocesan chief financial officer Esslie Hughes wrote Oct. 7 in an email shared with The Riverdale Press.

Mediator’s balance on past disbursements has ballooned from $11,000 in 2016 to $520,585 the church now owes in deferred expenses, according to an unsigned copy of a draft promissory note church members provided to The Press.

The church’s outstanding balance also includes a $29,438 loan and $12,526 in interest on that loan and an apportion share of $98,952 for a total of $661,501. The diocese could not be reached for comment on these figures before press time Tuesday.

The note allows for additional disbursements of up to $350,000 to hire architects, engineers, and legal and financial consultants, and $7,500 in monthly funds to cover the church’s insurance and utility fees. If signed, the Episcopal Church of the Mediator will also be responsible to pay for the time diocesan property services director Egbert Stolk spends assisting them in pursuing a “cash event for the real property” – $3,000 per month.

“My understanding is that any future advances from the diocese are conditional on the signing of the promissory note,” junior warden Mathew Ford informed fellow church members in an Oct. 12 email.

The pivotal vote was set to take place Oct. 16, but has now been pushed to another day this week, sources said, because the vote’s outcome could not be determined, and may have been contested because church leaders reportedly disagreed about whether Priest-in-Charge Luis Enrique Gomez should participate along with Mediator’s nine elected vestry.

However, the church’s canons are clear on this question, stating that “at each meeting of the vestry each member thereof shall be entitled to one vote.”

The Rev. Gomez did not reply to a request for comment Tuesday.

Community Board 8’s land use chair Charles Moerdler said church members contacted the board Monday seeking advice or help from the public advisory body, which he said CB8 is limited in providing.

But “from what I’m seeing, this appears to be a church that has as its primary membership a minority Spanish-speaking congregation, and that makes this very troublesome,” Moerdler said, referring to the congregation’s vulnerability.

“This building is an architectural gem that is critical to the history of Marble Hill. The question is whether some other aspect of the property could be utilized for air rights or sold in some form so you could preserve the beauty of the church without making it into a storefront church. That’s one thing we can maybe try to help them with.”

Abigail Nehring is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.